App maker Appian soars 25% on first day as a public company

 It was off to the races for Appian which debuted on the Nasdaq on Thursday, soaring 25% on its first day on the stock market.
After pricing shares at $12, the company closed the day above $15, valuing the company at about $900 million.
The company helps its enterprise and government customers with app development. “Appian is the easiest way for companies to build their own… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Binded raises another $950K for its copyright-protecting tools

Nathan Lands Binded aims to make it easier for photographers to protect their intellectual property by creating a permanent record of their copyright in a public database, namely the blockchain. The startup was previously known as Blockai, but it’s rebranding today — the new name is meant to focus less on technology and instead emphasize the idea of creating a legally binding record. Put… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Zuckerberg tells Harvard we need a new social contract of equal opportunity

 Mark Zuckerberg’s Harvard commencement centered around how we can improve life through big projects, equal opportunity, and building both local and global community. He outlined a plan “to create a world where every single person has a sense of purpose.” Rather than focusing on the opportunities for the Harvard students graduating in front of him, he urged the students to… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Target just gave Casper $75 million

 Target has reportedly rolled $75 million into Casper, the direct-to-consumer mattress startup you may have heard about in all those podcasts. The funding is a good chunk of what should end up being a more than $100 million round, according to a source at Recode, which first reported the news.
Target has confirmed it gave a bunch of money to Casper but would not confirm the amount (sigh). Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Mark Zuckerberg gets trolled on Harvard’s student newspaper ahead of commencement speech

 Ahead of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s commencement speech at Harvard today, the school’s much-lauded student newspaper had some… interesting headlines to share. “BREAKING: Mork Zinkletink Zonks all over the Internet!” The bogus headlines, first spotted by Business Insider, came from an unauthorized user according to a statement given to TechCrunch by… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Twitter for Apple TV adds live, 360 degree video and Periscope’s global map

Twitter launched a version of its service on Apple TV and other media player platforms last fall in order to deliver its live video content to the big screen. Today, the company is updating its Apple TV app with a couple of new features, including support for Periscope’s Global Map and the ability to watch live 360 degree videos. The company notes that, with this launch, Twitter is… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Boeing will build DARPA’s XS-1 experimental spaceplane

 You can hear the champagne corks popping here in Seattle as Boeing is awarded the contract to make DARPA’s cool experimental spaceplane. The XS-1, as it’s called, would allow for relatively cheap and simple trips to space for launching and testing satellites and all that sort of thing. Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Foursquare data shows international tourism to the U.S. is down

 International tourism to the U.S. is down, according to Foursquare location data. Using data from 13 million users (who have opted in to always-on location trails), Foursquare can examine who walks in and out of 93 million public places across the globe. According to the firm, the U.S. market share of international tourism started to drop in October 2016, falling by 6 percent year-over-year.… Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

R.I.P. Imzy

 Imzy, the kinder, gentler online community platform, will be shutting down on June 23rd. Company co-founder Dan McComas made the announcement in a blog post today, stating his apologies and explaining to the community Imzy just couldn’t find its place in the market. Read More


Source: Tech Crunch

Airbnb is running its own internal university to teach data science

 Tech companies, and increasingly even non-tech companies, are struggling with the fact that there are not enough trained data scientists to fill market demand. Every company has their own strategy for hiring and training, but Airbnb has taken things a step further — running its own university-style program, complete with a custom course-numbering system. Read More


Source: Tech Crunch